Jayesh Tekchandaney Tekchandaney's Key Ideas from The Art of Living: Vipassana Meditation as Taught by S.N. Goenka
by William Hart

Mind precedes all phenomena,

mind matters most, everything is mind-made.

If with an impure mind

you speak or act,

then suffering follows you

as the cartwheel follows the foot of the draft animal.

If with a pure mind

you speak or act,

then happiness follows you

as a shadow that n

ever departs.

Whatever suffering arises

has a reaction as its cause.

If all reactions cease to be

then there is no more suf

fering.

As the causes is, so the effect will be.

As the seed is, so the fruit will be.

As the action is so the result will be.

The chain of cause and effect that leads to suffering:

1. Ignorance leads to reactions.

2. Reactions give rise to consciousness.

3. Consciousness creates mind and matter.

4. Mind and matter lead to the six senses.

5. The six senses cause contact with the world.

6. Contact generates sensations.

7. Sensations lead to craving or aversion.

8. Craving and aversion cause attachment.

9. Attachment leads to the process of becoming.

10. Becoming results in birth.

11. Birth leads to decay, death, and all forms of suffering.

Suffering arises from ignorance and perpetuates itself through these interconnected steps.

The process of suffering can be reversed step by step:

1. Eradicate ignorance, reactions will cease.

2. Without reactions, consciousness ceases.

3. This ends mind and matter.

4. Without mind and matter, the six senses cease.

5. Without the six senses, contact ceases.

6. Without contact, sensations cease.

7. Without sensations, craving and aversion cease.

8. Without craving and aversion, attachment ceases.

9. Without attachment, the process of becoming ceases.

10. When becoming ceases, birth ends.

11. With no birth, decay, death, and suffering cease.

Eliminating ignorance leads to cessation of suffering.